The Los Angeles Times reported that California regulators also gave hospital owners a dozen extra years to make their buildings earthquake-resistant. (Hospitals complained about the cost.) And the legislature rejected a bond issue intended to ensure that government buildings can withstand an earthquake. The bond money would also have funded training for community response teams to help after an earthquake.

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Does anyone else picture the headline in three or five or 10 years? I see something like, "California passed up opportunity to protect public back in 2005." Isn't that what we read after every disaster? The "if only we'd done" stories?

You don't have to mark my words. I hope there's no such disaster. But if there is, I will be keen to read the stories about the finger-pointing.